Being an NBA player is one of the highest paying, highest praised jobs a person can have in the world. A job that is the dream to children everywhere. A job that allows financial stability for a lifetime (or several) if there is enough success. For the most part, players retire and never have to work another day of their lives. Despite this, many choose to go back into the work force. Some stay in the world of sports and venture towards announcing or coaching, some get into business and marketing, and some go on to quite…. DIFFERENT professions. Let’s dive into the most random post-retirement careers by retired NBA stars.
Adrian Dantley – From Crossing Guards to a Crossing Guard
Adrian Dantley, 16-year NBA veteran and 6-time All-Star, decided after his NBA career of making millions of dollars, he just wanted to spend his days being a crossing guard. Dantley had an extremely successful NBA career and fell under the category of never had to work another day in his life. Dantley knew this, but was bored not being in the NBA anymore, so Adrian volunteered his time to work for an Elementary School in New Hampshire as a Crossing Guard.
Darko Milicic – Apple-y Ever After. An Apple Farmer in Serbia
Once Darko had called it a career after being labeled as one of the biggest busts in NBA history, he decided he was taking his talents back to Serbia for redemption where he would practice his 2nd greatest passion, growing apples. Darko immediately bought a 125-acre farm and started growing apples like his life depended on it. Darko now dominates the apple industry of Serbia and has recently stated he is looking to expand his farm to cherries as well. Huge.
A true comeback story for the Serbian.
Vin Baker – From Dunkin’ Balls to Dunkin’ Donuts. A Barista for a popular coffee chain.
Another player with a successful NBA career, Vin Baker played 12 years and was a 4-time All-Star. A few years after his time in the league, Baker secured his first barista gig from a friend who was the manager of a Starbucks. Vin would go on to dominate the barista game and work his way up to the title of manager. Vin has since dominated that role as well and has begun opening his own Starbucks stores. A truly inspiring journey for a man who got into the barista game so late.
Latrell Sprewell – Bouncing Balls Turned Bouncing Bars. A Bouncer at Local Milwaukee Bar.
This is perfect. Spree. What a guy. A player who’s successful career is mostly overshadowed by an incident in which he assaulted his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, during a practice, choking and punching him, resulting in a 68 game suspension. While this was a knock on his NBA career, he would go on to put his combat skills to good use in becoming a bouncer for a bar in Milwaukee. Spree could very well be the greatest bouncer of all time. I know if I was going into a bar with Spree bouncing you better believe I’m going to be the most well-behaved customer of all time to avoid being choked out by Lattrell Sprewell.
Bob Pettit – An Accountant.
This one is MIND BOGGLING. Bob Pettit. NBA All-Star all 11 years of his career, a Rookie of the Year, a 2x scoring leader, a league-rebounding leader, an NBA Champion, a 2x MVP. Pettit was averaging 26 points a game ON HIS CAREER, before retiring at just 31 years old because he wanted to be an accountant so bad. He couldn’t wait any longer. Pettit is one of the greatest players in NBA history and decided to walk away from the game he was still dominating to begin his accounting career. Winning NBA championships and MVP’s, putting up 26+ points a game is nowhere near as exciting as the thrill of analyzing the operational costs of a thriving business. While people wonder how much better his career could have been if he didn’t leave the NBA early, I wonder how much better his accounting career would have been if he didn’t waste all that time winning silly NBA Awards.
